Though the Sampognaros purchased the winery in
2006, they are part of a fairly long line of Italian owners
dating back to the winery’s founding in 1913 by the
Colombano family.
“The Colombanos supposedly smuggled in cuttings from
Barbera vines in Italy,” Mike explained. At the time, the
Colombano family had acquired eighty acres and survived
prohibition by selling grapes to the east coast.
“The Colombanos eventually sold to the Pedrizzetti
family,” Mike said. When John Pedrizzetti died in the 1990s,
his heirs sold off much of the land. The Sampognaros
acquired the winery and its remaining ten acres in 2006,
not long before the major economic recession in 2008.
When the economy crashed, they had to make a hard choice
between keeping their home in San Jose, or the winery. They
chose the winery, moving into the home on the property,
and survived economic disaster by taking advantage of
storage and bottling capabilities, which has since become
their bread and butter.
With 350,000 gallons of storage capacity, they are a
go-to location for smaller wineries during harvest season and
one of the last places in the state that bottles four liter jugs
of wine.
Mike learned to make wine early on by inviting
customers who wanted to ferment their wine in their storage
tanks to send their winemakers along. “I learned from each
one of those winemakers and pretty soon I knew what I
was doing.”
He recounted a humorous tale of driving home covered
in the wine stains after scraping out wine barrels at 2 am,
only to be stopped by a highway patrol officer. Fortunately,
the officer believed he hadn’t also imbibed his product, and
he was free to go.
Though he learned on the job, wine making is also
in Mike’s blood. When he was a child his grandmother
would select the best grapes off the boats at the Brooklyn
docks, and his father and uncle would make wine in their
basement. The basement stairwell would be stacked to the
brim with jugs of homemade wine.
The Sampognaros have also spent time connecting with
other local wineries. Mike was one of the people responsible
for creating the Santa Clara Valley Wine Trail when he was
President of the Santa Clara Wine Association. Inspired
by a conversation with local dentist and wine enthusiast,
John Hatakeyama, and in partnership with the Morgan Hill
Tourism Alliance, Mike and other winemakers tried to think
of ways to attract more visitors to the area. Wine seemed an
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
obvious allure. They wanted to put signs on the freeway,
but Caltrans was not keen on that idea, so they envisioned
a wine trail, with signs that would point the way to
local wineries.
Thanks to the support of Santa Clara County Supervisor
Mike Wasserman, they were able to establish a trail that
still attracts wine lovers today. Mike Sampognaro believes it
may also have attracted more wineries, about which he has
mixed feelings.
On the one hand, it’s nice to have a wine region here,
but on the other hand, he said, “We have so many wineries
here now and I don’t feel that we’ve expanded the customer
base to keep everybody at a certain level.”
Morgan Hill Cellars’ tasting room and gift shop are open
Tuesdays through Sundays year-round. Twice a year, on a
Saturday in March and in September, they celebrate the
Santa Clara Valley Wine Passport event, with other local
wineries, live music, food and vendors. Otherwise their
facilities are available to be rented for parties of all kinds
and small weddings of fewer than 120 people.
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WINTER 2020
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